The bomb killed mostly women and children as it struck a bus coming from a wedding in a lawless district of Ghazni province.

Medical staff carry a victim of a roadside bombing into a hospital in Ghazni province on Sunday. The victims were mostly women and children returning from a wedding.

By:Star wire services, Published on Sun Oct 27 2013

KABUL—A roadside bomb killed 18 civilians Sunday, mostly women and children, after it struck a small bus coming from a wedding in a lawless district of eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, police said.

The explosion occurred around 4:30 p.m. in the Andar district of Ghazni province, a restive province southeast of Kabul, as the bus travelled from one village to another just before dusk.

The blast wounded five female passengers, two of whom remain in critical condition, said Col. Assadullah Insafi, the deputy provincial police chief.

Hwe said he had no other details, as the remote area was not easily accessible to security forces.

Even as the usual fighting season in Afghanistan is drawing to a close as the weather grows colder, violence has continued to plague large stretches of the country.

As Afghan forces have taken the lead in security operations ahead of the coalition troop withdrawal next year, the Taliban have stepped up their attacks, hoping to undermine the government and sow chaos.

Andar is one of the few districts in Ghazni where the Taliban retain some measure of control and often attack security forces, mostly by laying bombs along roads.

Roadside bombs are the Taliban’s weapon of choice and are responsible for the overwhelming majority of civilian casualties.

The UN said that in the first six months of this year 1,319 civilians were killed and 2,533 were wounded in the ongoing 12-year Afghan conflict, the majority of them attributed to the Taliban’s indiscriminate use of roadside bombs.

Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb detonated as a truck carrying air force personnel passed in a market in eastern Kabul, the capital. One civilian was killed.

Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said the bomb went off as military personnel waited for a vehicle to take them to work. He said five soldiers were wounded.

A man who identified himself as Ziaudin said his 10-year-old daughter was killed.

A witness, Hashmatullah, said another four civilians were wounded in addition to the soldiers. He said the bomb had been placed under vegetables in a shop.

Like many Afghans, the two men only use one name.

There has been a spike in violence around Afghanistan in recent months as the insurgents try to take advantage of a security handover from foreign forces to the Afghans.

The handover is the latest step in the gradual withdrawal of troops from the U.S.-led international military coalition, which will be completed at the end of 2014.